Package and packaging process



Aug 15 1967 l. HERTZBERG PACKAGE AND PACKAGING PROCESS Filed June 18, 1965 United States Patent Ollce 3,335,850 Patented Aug. 15, 1967 York Filed `lune 18, 1965, Ser. No. 465,125 14 Claims. (Cl. 206-46) The present invention relates to the art of packaging.

While the art of packaging is of course very highly developed at the present time, nevertheless there are certain types of articles which create particular problems in connection with the packaging of these articles. One of the most troublesome articles to package is an article which by nature is soft and substantially forrnless. For example, when an article consists of or is made to a great extent of a body of a mterial such as yarn, the soft body of yarn does not have any particular form which it is capable of retaining so that the packaging of an article of this type creates very special problems. On the one hand, it is of course desirable to give to the package for such an -article a certain form which will enable certain objectives to be achieved in connection with the packaged arti-cle. Thus, it is not so much a matter of simply wrapping the article so that it will remain clean and protected until it is to be used by the ultimate consumer, but in addition there is the problem of displaying the article while it remains packaged and in such a way that the prospective pur- -chaser of the article can derive as much information as possible about the article while it remains packaged.

It is `accordingly a primary object of the present invention to improve the packaging of articles of the above type, namely, relatively soft, substantially formless articles.

In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide a package as well as a process for making the package which will result in `giving the packaged article a highly desirable contour which will enable the prospective purchaser to obtain all of the information which might be desired about the article without, however, disturbing the packaging thereof.

In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide for relatively soft, substantially formless articles a package which not only will protect the arti-cle but which in addition will enable the article to -be seen and felt.

Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a package of the above type which is quite simple and inexpensive and which enables the articles to be very rapidly packaged in a highly reliable manner.

Also, the objects of the present invention include the provision of a package which enables the relatively soft, substantially formless article to be conveniently displayed.

It is in particular an object of the present invention to provide a packaging process and apparatus particularly suited for the packaging of soft, substantially formless articles such as bodies of yarn or articles which to a great extent are made up of bodies of yarn, such as mops.

According to the process of the present invention, the

soft, substantially formless article has a suitable frame placed next to the article, and this article together with the frame situated in a container which is lmade of a sheet material capable of shrinking when heat is applied thereto. This container with the `article and the frame therein is then heated so as to shrink to a configuration determined by the frame while at the same time engaging the article so that the latter can be felt through the sheet material which, when it is transparent, of course enables the article to be seen also.

The packaging apparatus o'f the invention includes a frame which is adapted to be placed next to the soft, substantially formless article so as to give the latter a configuration determined by the frame, and in addition t0 this frame the packaging apparatus of the invention includes a container which consists of a sheet material which has the property of shrinking when heat is applied thereto.

Thus, a package according to the present invention will include the relatively soft, substantially formless article located directly next to a suitable frame and situated together with the framein a container which consists of a sheet material which closely surrounds the frame while directly engaging the article so that the latter can be felt through the sheet material of the container.

The invention is illustrated by Way of example in the accompanying drawings which form part of the application and in which:

FIG. l is an exploded perspective illustration illustrating the packaging process of the present invention as applied to a mop;

FIG. 2 is a transverse sectional elevation taken along line 2 2 of FIG. l in the direction of the arrows and showing one embodiment of the package according to the present invention at an intermediate stage during the packaging process of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the completed package of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of another embodiment of a package according to the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary transverse sectional view, on an enlarged scale as compared to FIG. 4, showing the structure of the package of the invention at a peripheral portion thereof.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 3, the arti-cle 10y in the illustrated example is a mop which is composed for the most part of yarn so that the mop is soft and substantially formless.

In the illustrative showing, the article 10 has a rigid, relatively at body 8 and yarns 14 projecting from one face of body 3. Since the invention is not limited to the particular mop structure, such structure is not described in detail.

The package of the invention includes a-frame 12 which in the illustrated example is in the form of an endless lenth of wire. The conguration of the frame 12 will conform to the desired configuration of the package, so that the designer of the package can provide it with any desired shape by providing a suitably shaped frame 12. Initially, as shown in FIG. 2, the article 1 0 is placed on the frame 12 so that the yarns 14 project beyond the frame 12, in this particular example the frame 12 having a size small enough to permit the mop 10, when it rests on the frame 12, to have the yarns 14 projecting through a substantial distance beyond the Wire frame l2. The frame 12 is radially `beyond and of greater length than the perimeter of body y8.

According to the process of the present invention, after the frame 12 is placed against the article 10, the article, together with the frame, is situated within a container 16 which is made of a flexible sheet material which will shrink when heat is applied thereto. Thus, as is indicated in FIG. 1, the container 16 is made up of a lower sheet 18 and an upper sheet 20, and the :article 10 and the frame 12 thereagainst are placed within the container 16 simply by placing the frame 12 on the lower sheet 18,V placing the mop 10 on the frame 12, and then covering the mop 10 with the upper sheet 2t), so that the parts will have the position with respect to each other indicated in FIG. 2.

The sheet material of the container 16 is capable also of being heat sealed, and with a combination sealing and cutting tool, the sheets 18 and 20 are united along the line 22 indicated in FIG. 2 so that the container 16l will closely surround the periphery of the article 10 which at this time is simply located loosely within the container 3 together with the frame 12. The heat sealing which is provided along the line 22 is Well known and serves not only to seal the edges of the sheets 18 and 20 to each other, but also to trim away excess sheet material located beyond the line 22. s

Thereafter, the container 16, with the article 10 and frame 12 therein is placed within a suitable tunnel, oven, or the like Where heat is applied to the assembly, and the sheet material of the container 16- will now shrink with the result that the sheet material itself will draw the yarns 14 around the frame 12, as indicated in dotdash lines in FIG. 2, thus concealing the frame 12 while at the same time giving to the package a configuration determined by the configuration of the frame 12. Moreover, the shrunken sheet material by being somewhat tensioned against the article 10= directly engages the latter enabling the article 10 to be felt directly through the sheet material of the container 16.

Thus, by simply shrinking the container onto the article which has a suitable frame located thereagainst the relatively soft formless article can be given a predetermined configuration while at the same time enabling the article to be suitably protected by the sheet material of the container 16. In addition, the article can be felt through the sheet material. Moreover, where this sheet material is transparent the article can of course be seen.

In the illustrated example, for the sake of convenience, the frame 12 is provided at one end with la suitable loop 24 which is permitted to extend through the sheets 18 and 20 at a place where they are not heat sealed to each other, and in this Way the loop 24 enables the entire package to be conveniently hung for display purposes.

While the above-described package and process of the present invention is preferred since it gives the substantially forrnless article a predetermined configuration while at the same time concealing the frame from view, nevertheless such concealment of the frame is not essential, and the package and process of the invention can be used to provide an arrangement as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. Thus, in this case, the same mop 10 has a frame 26 which is placed next to the article 10 before the latter, together with the frame 26, is placed within the container 28 which may be identical with the container 16 except that it is of a different size. This container 2S is made in exactly the same way from -a sheet material which has the property of shrinking when heat is applied thereto. In the particular process and package of FIGS. 4 and 5, the frame 26, also made of an endless length of wire which may have a loop similar to the loop 24, completely surrounds the article 10. Thus, with this embodiment the frame 26 will not be concealed and instead when the frame is placed on the lower sheet of the container 28 the mop 10 can be placed within the frame and the tips of the yarns 14 at the periphery of the mop 10 will be situated close to but lsurrounded by the frame 26. Then the container is shrunk onto the article together with the frame 26 in the manner described above, so that the package shown in FIGS. 4 and results. With this package the wire frame 26 is visible and of course determines the outer configuration of the entire package. However, the sheet material of the container 28 nevertheless presses against the soft material of the article enabling the latter to be felt through the sheet Imaterial which, if it is transparent, at the same time enables the article to be seen.

While mops have been specifically referred to above, it is of course clear that the invention is applicable to any articles of soft, substantially formless construction, such as bodies of yarn or other relatively soft material; for example, the package and process of the invention can be used for dusters of all types, oor sweeps, wire twist brushes of all kinds, and of course products consisting of or including yarn, fabric, soft rubber, foam plastic, etc.

The sheet material of the container is of course preferably transparent, and although any shr-inkable transparent sheet material can be used, materials such las polyethylene and polyvinylchloride have been used successfully for the package of the invention. With such materials shrinking takes place at a temperature of approximately 350 F. in a suitable shrink tunnel or the like through which the articles can be conveyed on a suitable belt so that as they issue from the tunnel the completed package is delivered from the conveyor.

Polyvinylchloride has proved to be highly successful when passed through a shrink tunnel at approximately 400 F. with the container and the article and frame therein remaining at this latter temperature for approximately three seconds. These factors, obviously, are variable since it is clear that additional heat would require less time while a sheet material of lesser thickness would also require less time.

Thus, the packages of the present invention can be very inexpensively manufactured and at the same time enable the relatively soft, substantially formless articles to be given predetermined configurations While at the same time enabling the yarticles to be seen and 'felt through the sheet material of the containers in which they are located. Because frame 12 or 26 has a thickness which is only a small fraction of the thickness of the article 101, the shrinking of the sheet material of the container 16 or 28 to a stretched condition in opposition to the resistance to shrinking provided by the frame causes the sheet material to displace the frame automatically into a plane through and beyond which the article 10 projects in both directions. In this way, the location of the article directly next to the inner surface of the sheet material of the container is assured. Frame 12 is, of course, substantially rigid and limits the extent of shrinking of the sheet material.

What is claimed is:

1. A package comprising a soft, substantially formless article, a substantially rigid frame of lesser thickness than the article located next to said article, said frame extending in a given plane at least part of the way around a space occupied by at least part of the article, and a container in which said article and frame are situated, said container being made of a flexible sheet material shrunk against said article to an extent determined by said frame so as to have a configuration conforming substantially to that of said frame, the sheet material of said container situating said frame in a plane through which the article projects so that the sheet material is stretched directly against the article enabling the latter to be felt through the sheet material of the container.

2. A package as recited in claim 1 and wherein said frame is made of an endless length of wire.

3. The package of claim 1 and wherein said frame surrounds the article.

4. The package of claim 1 and wherein the material of the article itself extends around the frame.

5. A package comprising a body of yarn, a substantially fiat, endless wire trame of substantially less thickness than said body located next to said body of yarn, and a container in which said wire frame and body of yarn are situated, said container consisting of iiexible sheet material shrunk against said body to an extent determined by said frame and having a configuration conforming substantially to that of said frame, said sheet material situating said frame in a plane through which said body projects so that the said sheet material is stretched against the body of yarn, whereby the latter can be felt through the sheet material.

6. The package of claim 5 and wherein said body of yarn forms part of a mop having a relatively at, substantially central body fixed to the body of yarn and from which the yarn projects.

7. A package combination comprising -a relatively flat, shape-sustaining body, a multiplicity of flexible strands extending from such body, a wire loop extending around said body'and spaced outwardly of the periphery thereof, said strands extending between said body and said loop and disposed in a mass of greater thickness than said loop,

and a container enveloping the foregoing elements, said container consisting of shrinkable, fiexible sheet material of unshrunk dimension sufiicient to envelop the foregoing elements loosely and shrunk in situ so as to conform in configuration substantially to said foregoing elements, said loop providing in part the resistance determining the final shrunk configuration of said container, whereby said sheet material is stretched against the strands so that the latter can be felt through the sheet material.

8. A package combination according to claim 7, said strands and body are wholly received within the periphery of said loop, said sheet material engaging tightly around the periphery of said loop.

9. A package combination according to claim 7, said strands extending over, about the outer periphery of and under the loop, so as substantially to conceal it from view, said sheet material urging said strands against said loop.

10. A process for packaging a soft, substantially formless article, comprising the steps of placing next to the article a frame which is of lesser thickness than the article and leaves the article substantially uncovered by the frame, placing the article with the frame next to the same within a flexible container made of a sheet material which has the property of shrinking when heat is applied thereto, and applying heat to the container with the article and frame therein until the container shrinks up to an extent determined by the frame and becomes stretched against the article, so that while the frame gives shape to the resulting package the article itself can be felt through the sheet material of the container.

11. The process of claim and wherein the article includes a body of yarn.

12. The process of claim 10 and wherein the article is a mop.

13. A process for packaging a soft, substantially formless article, comprising the steps of surrounding the article with a substantially fiat Wire frame of less thickness than the article, placing the article together with the wire frame surrounding the same in the interior of a container made of a sheet material which shrinks when heat is applied thereto, and applying to the container with the article and wire frame therein heat sufiicient to shrink the container onto the wire frame, so that the sheet material of the container directly engages and is stretched against the article in the space surrounded by the wire frame thereby enabling the article to be felt through the sheet material -while the package is given shape by the wire frame.

14. A process for packaging a soft, substantially formless article, comprising the steps of placing against the article a wire frame beyond which the article extends, then placing the article together with the wire frame in the interior of a container made of a sheet material which shrinks when heat is applied thereto, and applying to the container with the article and frame therein heat sufiicient to shrink the container until it draws the portion of the article which projects beyond the frame around the latter so as to conceal the frame with the larticle itself while the frame nevertheless gives the package a predetermined configuration, the sheet material of the shrunken container directly engaging the article to permit the latter to be felt through the sheet material of the container.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1961 Scholl 206-80 8/1961 Mills 206-78 

1. A PACKAGE COMPRISING A SOFT, SUBSTANTIALLY FORMLESS ARTICLE, A SUBSTANTIALLY RIGID FRAME OF LESSER THICKNESS THAN THE ARTICLE LOCATED NEXT TO SAID ARTICLE, SAID FRAME EXTENDING IN A GIVEN PLANE AT LEAST PART OF THE WAY AROUND A SPACE OCCUPIED BY AT LEAST PART OF THE ARTICLE, AND A CONTAINER IN WHICH SAID ARTICLE AND FRAME ARE SITUATED, SAID CONTAINER BEING MADE OF A FLEXIBLE SHEET MATERIAL SHRUNK AGAINST SAID ARTICLE TO AN EXTENT DETERMINED BY SAID FRAME SO AS TO HAVE A CONFIGURATION CONFORMING SUBSTANTIALLY TO THAT OF SAID FRAME, THE SHEET MATERIAL OF SAID CONTAINER SITUATING SAID FRAME IN A PLANE THROUGH WHICH THE ARTICLE PROJECTS SO THAT THE SHEET MATERIAL IS STRETCHED DIRECTLY AGAINST THE ARTICLE ENABLING THE LATTER TO BE FELT THROUGH THE SHEET MATERIAL OF THE CONTAINER. 